Tuesday, 29 April 2014

Anything meat, is probably the worst meal for me. I am a vegetarian, so the idea of eating meat to me, is not very appealing. The texture, smell, and idea of meat just turns me off. I do not mind watching other people eat meat, but the times when I tried it as a kid resulted in gagging. Hot dogs are something that I did eat as a kid, but now the thought of them just makes me cringe. A lot of my friends love to eat ribs, and in our group chats there is the occasional "let's go eat ribs." My natural response to them is "I'll just eat carrots."

My imaginary Eden would be bright. Beautiful blue skies, sun shining, and not a dark cloud in sight. This would be a place with no judgements, and insecurities would not control any thought process. This is a place where faith takes a big role. Everyone has something to put their hope in, and no matter wha the circumstances are, we always comes out stronger in the end. My loved ones would be here, stress would be subsided, and people would be filled with not only happiness, but joy.

Ideally, another Eden that I have would be sitting on stage, front row, black dress, black dots on the pages in front of me, no audience to be seen; just the conductor. I would have the most beautiful, lyrical, professional solo placed on the stand in front of me and not a nervous bone in my body. I would play my flute with grace, unafraid of making a mistake. The people around me would be my second family, all supportive of anyone in this orchestra. As I look around the room, everyone would be working towards one goal, one beautiful song that would make jaws drop.

Monday, 28 April 2014

The Skype session went really well today. Everyone was prepared and the kids seemed to be pretty interested in what we had to say. It was cool that we got to put their procedural writing into practice, and it was a fun group project as well.

I think skyping is really effective in learning for both our grade and theirs. It's a new experience and we get to see their working habits compared to ours. It's exciting and it keeps us all engaged because it's a different way of doing things. The grade 3's are genuinely interested in doing well and learning from us. It's pretty cool to get a different classes perspective on things.

This past Saturday was out school's Big Band Dance. It is probably one of the biggest nights of the year. You can't go wrong with good music, lots of dancing, and good people. This was my last year performing and it was amazing. Our set lasted and hour and a half and it was really entertaining for the audience. All of our hard work went into performing for one night and it was great, but unfortunately it's now over. Four more performances to go!

Step Three: Go to the list icon. Once on the new page, go to the "add a person" icon, which is a picture of the person with a plus sign.

Step Four: Type in your friends usernames to find them.

Step Five: Hit the camera icon I the top left corner to start snapchatting!

Step Six: Take an appropriate picture of yourself of what you're doing. Megan and I like to send ugly selfies of eachother-sometimes!

Step Seven: Tap the picture to add any words or funny doodles to your picture.

Step Eight: Tap the arrow in the bottom right corner and that will take you to your friend list. Once at your friend list you can choose who you would like to send this to, or you can tap the heading that says "My Story" and send it to everyone!

Sunday, 20 April 2014

There are three things that scare me in life. Spiders, losing a loved one, and change. I did not realize just how afraid of change I was until last year. I didn't go on my grade seven winter camp trip, or my grade eight ski trip, or band camp, and I almost did not go to Cuba. This was all because I would have to face the simple fear of trying new things. I'm the type of person who finds something they like and sticks with it. Why change things if they're going well? The problem with that, is graduation. It's going to happen eventually. No, I am not prepared for it, but I cannot love by the words of this six word memoir anymore. Without being pushed a little bit, I would not be who I am right now. That is why I chose a before and after picture. The first picture was taken when I was in pre school, and the second picture is my graduation picture. I chose to use bold letters for this photo because this fear, and nervousness has always been on my mind and in my life. This photo does not show what my life has been like, but hopefully it will show where I can go from here.

I love this quote because it makes me realize that no matter where you are; if you're thousands of miles away, next door, maybe you're at your lowest point in your life, or your happiest, someone will always love you and always be waiting for you. I think this picture shows that you can love different people as well. I chose to use a black and white background to make it seem more like we were silhouettes, and to give more of an effect than anything. The people in this picture are ones that I have known all throughout high school, and one that I have known since elementary school. We don't always see each other, or always get along, but somehow things work out. Love is not always rosey, but there is always going to be someone who does love you.

This project
was one that I have enjoyed, but not completed. It was something new and very
different. I've never been told to sum up something about my life in six words.
It got me thinking more in depth about myself and how to approach what I was
trying to get across in the image. The pictures were the easiest thing to find.
The only part I found hard about this was coming up with words that made sense
to the reader. I definitely could have gone more in depth looking back on it,
but I can also make some changes to the ones that haven't been posted yet.

Ignite
Presentation: Grade A

I thought my
presentation went well, and that I handed my assignment in, in a timely matter.
It was a little bit stressful for me because I felt I was a little bit of a
scatter brain. One idea would come up and then another directly afterwards, and
sequencing the slides didn't go as well for me as I had hoped. Over all, I
could have been more organized, and tried to calm myself down a little bit more
as well. However, I do believe that my peers enjoyed what I had to say. Through
this presentation I learned how to connect with audience on a different level
than just speaking at someone. The purpose of these presentations are to inform,
and I think everyone in the class did a great job of expressing what they were
passionate about. It was different to have the option of what we wanted to talk
about, rather than having it handed to us. I think that turned me a little bit
sideways, but when I think about previous years, I remember always wanting my
teachers to let us have our own topic. Having that choice was a good kind of
different.

Blogging:
Grade C

Above all,
this has been my biggest setback. I have not been on the ball with posting my
assignments on time, or visiting others' blogs. Recently I started adding some
personal posts. Initially it hadn't really clicked that the blog was more than
just a place to store your assignments. As I add more things I do become more
familiar with it, it's just a different way of learning. Posting on my peers
blogs is something that I need to start doing, as I have neglected it so far.

Connecting
and Engaging: Grade C

I think that
I could definitely do a better job of participating in class discussions, and
commenting on blogs. I have pushed that to the side when I shouldn't have. I do
attend class on a regular basis, but generally I don't always get my work done
in class, which is something that I am working on.

This question has been asked many times by friends, aquaintances, family members, teachers, and even myself. It is a question that I haven't been able to answer just yet.

Initially when I was in elementary school, I wanted to be a vetranarian. After a while I realized I would not be able to look a child in the eye and tell them to say goodbye to their beloved pets. In middle school I had no clue because I wasn't thinking about it and at the time I only wanted to be accepted by those around me. School was not my top priority. Towards the end of grade 8, on into high school, I had started watching Criminal Minds, Rizzoli & Isles, Lie to Me, CSI, Law and Order:SVU, and Castle. Basically any crime show you could imagine at the time. I wanted to be as bad ass as Emily Prentiss on Criminal Minds. Being a criminal profiler, study forensics, behavioural analysis, and helping people was what I wanted to do. Then of course I stopped watching the shows, and I lost some interest in it. At the thinning of grade 12, I wanted to be a nurse. My youth leader is a nurse at the children's hospital, and her stories just inspired me to try it out. Clearly God must have some different plan for me, because I am definitely not a biology person. Biology stressed me out beyond belief and that was only grade 12, could you imagine university?

Soon afterwards I decided music was something I could do. I spend the majority of my day in the band room, the majority of "study" time goes towards practicing. It's something I care about, something I love, and something I'm good at. My only issue is that I was never this invested in my music until grade eleven. That's five years of taking it for granted. My teachers informed me that I should take a year to do more lessons because I can do it, it's just going to take some extra work.

Most times I am not patient, and everytime I messed up, I stress a little bit more. It scares me to leave where I'm at a little bit right now, just because I don't know any different. Now, to change my mind one more time, I started thinking about leaving to do a mission trip. Everyone says "travel while you're young", and as the days go on it becomes more and more appealing.

How great would it be to travel, help people, and experience life all at once? I am in such a bubble and change might just be a good thing.

I had a short concersation with a friend the other day. I'm not that close with him but the moment I told him about music he said "oh man, that's awesome. You should be in the symphony." Immediately I started saying "well, it's not as simple as that." His response to me was "everyone in that symphony started where you are. Yeah, you're going to have to work at it, but if you want to do it, than do it. What's stopping you?" I didn't have an answer for him because I don't know what's stopping me. Everything that I worried about just seemed so small in that moment, and it gave me some new hope.

An after school jam session. It wasn't pretty, and some doors were shut on us. I don't know though, playing "let it go" with a cow bell in the mix; we're definitely giving Idina Menzel a run for her money.